Recommendation 18

Following our session on 13 May 2021, the Department told the Transport Committee that negotiations with all train operators have concluded around terminating the underlying franchise agreements, which is necessary to enable the transition of operators 37 Qq 19, 31 38 C&AG’s report, pp 8, 15 39 Committee of Public Accounts, Rail franchising in the UK, Twenty-Fifth Report of Session 2017–19, HC 689, April 2018 40 C&AG’s report, p20 41 Qq 22, 31, 38 42 C&AG’s report, p19 43 Q 42 Overview of the English rail system 13 from ERMAs to the National Rail contracts.44 It will be agreeing these new contracts over this year45 and told us that these new arrangements will work on the basis of annual business planning by operators with quarterly reviews by the Department against specific targets. It also said that the new contracts will use a similar fee-based approach in place on the EMRAs.46 The Department acknowledged that oversight and management of these contracts will require significant Departmental resource, but felt that it would not be a step change from the intensive management required for awarding and managing franchise contracts.47